Bibles burnt in Mizoram: SATANIC?

Ashes of burnt Bibles on top of a Satanic sign across the floor in the church in Mizoram. Photo: Post Photo

Zodin Sanga, Aizawl (May 8): Suspected Satan worshippers attacked a Presbyterian church at Kolasib in northern Mizoram in the wee hours of Tuesday, even as Satanism has emerged as disturbing trend among the youths in the Christiandominated state.

“A church member Englawma, who lives nearby the church, saw a smoke coming out from inside the church around 4 am. When he went closer and looked through the window glass, he found a heap of burnt Bibles on the dance floor,” Kolasib police said.

A good number of Bibles were stacked on top of a large sign of Anarchy scrawled across the floor and torched. It was believed that the burnt Bibles were not from the vandalized church alone as there were reports of missing Bibles from other churches, the police sources said. Other books like commentaries and Oxford Bible dictionaries were not touched.

The vandalism came close on the heels of an attack on a United Pentecostal Church in Kolasib in broad daylight on May 2 where Bibles and hymn books were burnt similarly.

It may be recalled that burnt copies of Bibles and a disposable cup filled with blood was found in a remote cemetery at Kawnpui in Kolasib district on December 24 last year. Another incident of Satanism occurred inside the church of United Pentecostal Church (North East India) at Hunthar locality in Aizawl on the night of January 19. The shocking incident — burnt pages of Bibles scattered across the floor where an Anarchy sign was written and sacramental cup filled with blood – was discovered by church members who went to the church to offer prayer.

The rising popularity of Satan worship has become a cause of grave concern among the church leaders, parents and social workers in the Christian-dominated state of Mizoram.

During the past few years, incidents of burnt Bibles, defiled churches and sacrificial ceremony in remote cemeteries have been on the rise as an increasing number of teenagers have embraced cults and engaged in devil worship in an attempt to receive supernatural powers and perform miracles.

“Though it might sound paradoxical, the truth is there are Satan worshippers in Mizoram where about 90 per cent of the total population is Christians,” Lalrammawia Ngente, a church elder and college lecturer, told the Seven Sisters Post on Tuesday.

Ngente, who has done a research on Satanism in Mizoram and has written a book on occult, said he had interacted with a number of youths who confessed that they worshipped Satan. “Unlike some western countries where there are churches of Satan, most devil worshippers in Mizoram perform these sinister activities individually or sometimes in a group of four or five,” he said. “Most of those I have interviewed told me that they worshipped Satan to attain supernatural powers and perform miracles. They said Satan gave them whatever they asked. Most of them offered their own blood by cutting their wrist. Sometimes they also offered chicken’s blood,” Ngente said.

According to his research, Satan worshippers included students staying in hostels who asked the Devil for success in exams. According to Rev L H Rawsea, a faculty member of the Aizawl Theological College which had investigated Satanism in Mizoram a few years back, the cultic practice began as early as 2000 by youths who were influenced by television shows and films about paranormal activities and occult.

“We estimated there could be about 300 such youths in Mizoram who are doing these things,” Rev Rawsea said. According to P C Biaksiama, a Christian scholar, the influence of western pop culture is one of the main factors driving the youths into devil worship.

“Some pop singers in western countries offered themselves to Satan to get fame and money. Those celebrities have influenced our youths,” he said. Biaksiama, however, observed that Satanism could not be as progressive in Mizoram as it has been in some western countries due to the influence of Christianity which is still strong in the state.